Where does the buck stop: Congress on scribe’s killing in Uttar Pradesh

Following the death of a Ghaziabad based journalist after being shot on Monday night for protesting against the harassment of his niece, the Congress has hit out at the Uttar Pradesh government. Addressing a press conference on Wednesday, party spokesperson Supriya Shrinate asked "So who is answerable for it today, where does the buck stop?"

Shrinate said that Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is conspicuously silent on the consistently rising crime graph. Should one be surprised that increasingly those being accused of criminal acts are either from the BJP or associated with some of its top leaders or enjoy their political patronage, she asked.

"I have been a journalist and so I feel very strongly about what is happening to my fellow journalists in UP. Every agency, brute police force, false cases are being used to silence the critics of this government, to clampdown on honest journalism," said Shrinate.

Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi too have targeted the UP government and termed it as "Jungle Raj".

Journalist Vikram Joshi, who was shot at by armed assailants near his residence in Vijay Nagar, Ghaziabad on June 20, passed away on Wednesday.

The scribe was attacked when he was returning from his sister's house along with his two daughters on a motorbike on Monday night. He had suffered a bullet injury on his head after the assailants opened fire at him.

The Chief Minister has announced a job for the victim's wife and cash compensation. Nine people have been arrested in connection with the shooting. Meanwhile, police officer Raghvendra has been suspended for not taking swift action and ignoring the complaint filed by the family of the victim.

Highlights of press briefing by Surpriya Shrinate:

I am from UP and I have also been a journalist so it pains me today to learn that journalist Vikram Joshi has passed away. I express my sympathies and condolences to his family and friends and I pray that his soul rests in peace. But I want to ask a question what was his fault? Wasn't he simply trying to protect his family, did he not seek basic justice against those harassing his minor niece, who was being harassed for over a year? I shudder to think about his little minor daughters who saw their father being shot at point blank range, in fact the CCTV footage is not just disturbing with his helpless daughter trying to wake him up.

But it does raise very many questions on the complete collapse of law and order in the state of Uttar Pradesh. Is this what Yogi Adityanath promised the state of UP and can this lawlessness, jungle raj be passed off as the Ram Rajya that was promised.

Questions also arise because this is not an isolated incident, crime has become commonplace in UP. And what is perhaps even more prevalent than incidents of crime are the efforts to silence voices that rise against crime. Vikram Joshi reached out to the police which did not act upon his complaint till he was shot on Monday night. In fact, one of the accused Chottu is facing a similar charge in Vijay Nagar police station where his charge sheet has been presented before the court. It is complete failure of the Ghaziabad police in monitoring this criminal that resulted in the death of Vikram Joshi. So, who is answerable for it today, where does the buck stop?

According to the latest NCRB data of 2018, Uttar Pradesh has become the leader across every act of crime in India. 46 women are abducted and kidnapped on an average daily, 12 are raped and a minimum of 36 women face assault with an intent to outrage their modesty. The latest available data also shows that 4,018 people were murdered in the state in 2018, which means 11 murders every day !

But, I am not surprised at all how Uttar Pradesh has become the land of lawlessness and why crimes are consistently rising. Of the 312 BJP MLAs in the UP assembly, 114 of them (37%) face criminal charges, of these 83 MLAs face grave criminal charges like murder, attempt to murder or rape. Are these the people we can entrust to enforce law and order in the state?

I have been a journalist and so I feel very strongly about what is happening to my fellow journalists in UP. Every agency, brute police force, false cases are being used to silence the critics of this government to clampdown on honest journalism.

Whether it is Ramesh Mishra who was killed in broad daylight in Lakhimpur or News1 India’s Manish Pandey, who merely reported on faulty PPE kits, or Scroll's Supriya Sharma who brought to light the pathetic state of affairs in a village adopted by Prime Minister Modi in Varanasi and has had to face the highhandedness and a false case, or Pawan Jaiswal who shook our collective conscience with his honest ground report from Mirzapur, where children were being served ‘salt and Roti’ during mid-day meal, or Prashant Kanojia who was booked for a social media post and finally got some respite only from the Supreme Court or the 5 journalists in Bijnor who talked about caste discrimination and had to face very grave charges, or the Gangster Act that was put against some journalists in Noida.

The list of state's brute force is endless against our colleagues in media. But truth has a way of coming out and you cannot suppress facts. In fact, BJP’s own MLAs are now consistently talking about the kind of corruption that exists in the UP government. MLA from Hardoi, Shyam Prakash has spoken about it openly and so has Rakesh Rathore, MLA from Sitapur district.

But, why is the Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath conspicuously silent on the consistently rising level of crime all across the spectrum. Should one be surprised that increasingly those being accused of criminal acts are either from the BJP or associated with some of its top leaders or enjoy their political patronage?

Let me quote just two examples - Inspector Subodh Singh who was brutally murdered has still not got justice, his son has so far not got a government job under the UP administration but the main accused of his murder Shikhar Agarwal is not just out on bail, he has also been given a position within the Bharatiya Janata Party - made general secretary of the Prime Minister‘s Jan Kalyan Yojana Abhiyan.

I wasn’t in the least surprised when the main accused in the Akbarpur murder case is BJP District Secretary Satyam Singh Chauhan flaunted his pictures with law minister Brajesh Pathak or another minister Swati Singh.

Is this mere coincidence or is this a brazen government intoxicated by power, which doesn't care about law and order, and thrives on the criminal nexus. The lesser said about the consistently rising graph and cases of crime against women the better. Just a few days back a mother and daughter from Amethi were so fed up of running pillar to post that they tried to kill themselves in the state 4 capital. It's almost a curse to be a woman in the state of Uttar Pradesh. In Unnao one saw how a rape victim was burnt alive on the road, this gets repeated all across the state.

A few days back in Kaasganj, a gang rape victim and her mother were run over by a tractor, in Bareilly a victim was killed when a bike rammed into her and instead of lodging an FIR the police put pressure on the victim's family.

In Lakhimpur Khiri, a Dalit rape victim committed suicide for lack of action by the law enforcement agencies, in Barabanki despite lodging a complaint of molestation no action was taken and finally the victim committed suicide by jumping from the fourth floor.

The BJP's former MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar, who the party tried to shield for too long has been found guilty of both the rape and murder. And despite political patronage BJP‘s leader Swami Chinmayananda who faced grave sexual exploitation charges had to be arrested and is out on bail.

Instead of attacking and breaking the political-criminal nexus, the Yogi Government preferred a fake encounter of a seasoned criminal like Vikas Dubey, which conveniently masks this nexus. But how will the Chief minister answer those 8 martyred police officials? Why was Vikas Dubey‘s name not included in the 25 most wanted criminal list, how will he explain a section of his own police that was hand in glove with the criminal? Who in Yogi Adityanath's government was trying to protect Dubey and was giving him political patronage? This govt cannot escape these raging questions.

In fact, the fake encounter was so shoddy that even the Supreme Court has taken a very strict view of it, stating -We are shocked that how could a man with such a history be out on bail? It shows that the entire system has failed and this is not one incidence, it puts the entire credibility of the UP government at stake.

But does it make any difference to the Yogi Adityanath government? It is the soft-benevolent attitude towards crime, the attempts to mask criminal data, the political patronage that has been given by the Yogi Adityanath government that has emboldened criminals all across the state of Uttar Pradesh. Instead of acting against criminals, the UP government comes down heavily on those in the opposition, who raise their voices against these acts of crime.

But there is one question that will continue to haunt this government - Why is the chief minister quiet? How can he silently preside over the death and collapse of law and order in Uttar Pradesh? Does he have a plan or even a will to crack down on corruption as well as lawlessness?

Uttar Pradesh that houses one sixth of India’s population did not elect Yogi Adityanath to witness crime increase manifold. It is his first and only priority to ensure safety of citizens and if he is incapable of doing so he can simply resign. At no cost will we stand mute spectators as Uttar Pradesh turns into a ‘Apradh Pradesh’.

(With IANS inputs)